--- title: Donald Trump-Pope Francis Showdown Coming to a Close description: He praises the Pope just a day after he called the pontiff's disagreement with his immigration policy "disgraceful" canonical: https://time.com/4231111/donald-trump-pope-francis-terrific-person/ author: Charlotte Alter article:opinion: false article:content_tier: free article:published_time: 2016-02-19T21:23:21.000Z article:modified_time: 2026-08-19T07:46:29.144Z article:section: Politics og:title: Trump Calls Pope Francis a 'Terrific Person' After Showdown og:description: Trump praised Pope Francis after he clarified his comments og:url: https://time.com/4231111/donald-trump-pope-francis-terrific-person/ og:site_name: TIME og:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/bltb3a940e38a768f00/69887e613c1639ebb045c1b1/gettyimages-496584986-1.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 og:image:width: 4909 og:image:height: 2761 og:image:alt: &lt;&gt; on November 10, 2015 in Milwaukee, Wisconsin. og:type: article twitter:card: summary_large_image twitter:title: Trump Calls Pope Francis a 'Terrific Person' After Showdown twitter:description: Trump praised Pope Francis after he clarified his comments twitter:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/bltb3a940e38a768f00/69887e613c1639ebb045c1b1/gettyimages-496584986-1.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 ---  # Trump Calls Pope Francis a 'Terrific Person' After Showdown > Sponsored content. 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It explains the politics, personalities and power dynamics behind the headlines, twice a week. #### Where can I get analysis of Washington politics by email? D.C. Brief is TIME's free Washington politics newsletter, available at time.com/newsletters. It is written by a TIME senior correspondent who covers the capital full time. #### Who writes TIME's D.C. Brief? Philip Elliott, a senior correspondent at TIME, writes D.C. Brief. #### Is D.C. Brief free? Yes. D.C. Brief is free at time.com/newsletters. ### Sources * TIME Newsletters: [time.com/newsletters](/c/time-nl-dcbrief-2026q3/newsletters?i=65d3883b-8443-4a13-b123-8f1e9493cef6&cr=time-nl-dcbrief-2026q3-v1)  by [Charlotte Alter](https://time.com/author/charlotte-alter/)  ## Charlotte Alter Senior Correspondent Feb 19, 2016 9:23 PM UTC  Donald Trump on November 10, 2015 in Milwaukee, Wisconsin. Donald Trump on November 10, 2015 in Milwaukee, Wisconsin. Scott Olson—2015 Getty Images  by [Charlotte Alter](https://time.com/author/charlotte-alter/)  ## Charlotte Alter Senior Correspondent Feb 19, 2016 9:23 PM UTC The Trump-Pope showdown seems to be coming to a close. Republican presidential frontrunner Donald Trump praised Pope Francis just a day after he slammed the pontiff for criticizing his stance on immigration. Trump called Pope Francis “a terrific person” in an interview with [Greta Van Susteren for Fox News ](http://insider.foxnews.com/2016/02/19/greta-record-interview-trump-pope-francis-criticism-sc-primary)set to air Friday night, and cast their disagreement as a miscommunication. “I don’t think the Pope really understood in terms of the crime problem and the problems of illegal immigration.” Pope Francis indirectly criticized Trump’s immigration policy in response to a direct question on the papal plane Wednesday.“A person who thinks only about building walls, wherever they may be, and not building bridges, is not Christian,” he said [when a reporter asked him about Trump. ](http://www.nytimes.com/2016/02/19/world/americas/pope-francis-donald-trump-christian.html)“That is not the gospel.” During a rally in South Carolina on Thursday, Trump called out the Pope for slamming him. “For a religious leader to question a person’s faith is disgraceful,” he told a cheering crowd, [alleging that the Pope ](http://www.nytimes.com/politics/first-draft/2016/02/18/donald-trump-calls-popes-criticism-disgraceful/)was being pressured by the Mexican government. “They are using the Pope as a pawn and they should be ashamed of themselves for doing so,” he said. A spokesman for the Pope weighed in Friday, clarifying that the comments were not intended to sway American voters. “In no way was this a personal attack, nor an indication of how to vote,” [said ](http://abcnews.go.com/International/pope-francis-comments-trump-personal-attack-vatican/story?id=37056289)Vatican spokesman Rev. Federico Lombardi. The semi-apology seems to have placated Trump, who appears to want to bury the hatchet with the leader of the Catholic Church. “The fact that he said that, I’m very honored by it,” he told Fox. ```json [{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"NewsArticle","@id":"https://time.com/4231111/donald-trump-pope-francis-terrific-person/","mainEntityOfPage":{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https://time.com/4231111/donald-trump-pope-francis-terrific-person/"},"headline":"Trump Calls Pope Francis a 'Terrific Person' After Showdown","datePublished":"2016-02-19T21:23:21.000Z","dateModified":"2026-08-19T07:46:29.144Z","description":"He praises the Pope just a day after he called the pontiff's disagreement with his immigration policy \"disgraceful\"","url":"https://time.com/4231111/donald-trump-pope-francis-terrific-person/","keywords":["Donald Trump","Pope Francis","Immigration","Mexico","pope","trump"],"thumbnailUrl":"https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/bltb3a940e38a768f00/69887e613c1639ebb045c1b1/gettyimages-496584986-1.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=1200:675&height=675","author":[{"@type":"Person","name":"Charlotte Alter","jobTitle":"Senior Correspondent","url":"https://time.com/author/charlotte-alter/"}],"articleSection":"Politics","image":[{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/bltb3a940e38a768f00/69887e613c1639ebb045c1b1/gettyimages-496584986-1.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=1200:675&height=675","width":1200,"height":675,"headline":"<> on November 10, 2015 in Milwaukee, Wisconsin.","caption":"<> on November 10, 2015 in Milwaukee, Wisconsin.","creditText":"Scott Olson—2015 Getty Images","representativeOfPage":true}],"publisher":{"@type":"Organization","name":"Time","url":"https://time.com/","logo":{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://time.com/images/logo.png","width":528,"height":156},"foundingDate":"March 3, 1923","sameAs":["https://www.facebook.com/time","https://www.instagram.com/time/?hl=en","https://twitter.com/time","https://www.pinterest.com/timemagazine"]}},{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"BreadcrumbList","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"item":{"@id":"/section/politics/","name":"Politics"}},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"item":{"@id":"/tag/donald-trump/","name":"Donald Trump"}},{"@type":"ListItem","position":3,"item":{"@id":"https://time.com/4231111/donald-trump-pope-francis-terrific-person/","name":"Trump Calls Pope Francis a 'Terrific Person' After Showdown"}}]}] ```